The paradox of the current housing crisis is this: mortgages are drying up, it will take the average earner more than two decades to save for a deposit, and the private rented sector is expanding – yet home ownership is more popular than ever before.

Statistics from Ipsos Mori suggest that more and more people want to own their home. It doesn't matter whether the tenant questioned is paying their rent to a local authority, a housing association or a private landlord, the majority now want the chance to call a little piece of England their own.

Yet when asked about their realistic expectations of where they might live next, most admitted they would not be able to own. As growing numbers of low- and middle-income earners are forced out of ownership, the private sector is growing (quite how quickly we won't know until the results of the 2011 census are published). So is it fit for the job of housing individuals and families for longer periods, potentially for a lifetime?

There are two issues wrongly conflated when discussing private rent. The first is the worst elements of the sector – the rogue landlords, damp and unhealthy properties, vulnerable tenants held to ransom; the second is a lack of stability and desirability.

The problems associated with the worst end of private rent are not new, and they must be tackled. The 1,500 worst landlords, which Shelter states are known to local authorities, should be taken out of the market and penalised for their poor performance. My sense is that as the tenure of the few becomes the housing choice of the many, problem landlords will be tackled with increasing force.

However, for the rest, the problem is one of stability. When private renters are asked to move around year after year, uprooting their families and incurring large arrangement fees every time they sign a new 12-month lease, the private sector will always be considered a third-class choice.

When the Resolution Foundation held a focus group of private renters, asking them what would make the sector more attractive to them long-term, their answers included lengthy, fixed tenures, the ability to make changes to their home, and stable, predictable rents.

Yet at a debate on the death of home ownership this week, which sought to understand how private rent could be improved to meet the needs of a growing number of tenants, the discussion turned into an outbreak of agreement over the need to build more homes and tackle the blight of nimbyism which prevents the development of new properties for rent.

There is a shortage of homes – housebuilding in the UK is at the lowest level for a generation – but there are other simpler solutions that could be introduced to improve the experience of tomorrow's private renters well before any new homes could be built.

The introduction of longer tenancies as standard, the creation of a mechanism to protect rent rates for sitting tenants and more flexible arrangements that allow tenants to make suitable modifications to their homes are all easy wins.

Other regulations could help improve security. According to Shelter, France has a eviction freeze in place over winter, meaning vulnerable households do not have to fear finding themselves homeless during the worst weather of the year – a system which could be replicated in the UK. More radically, a rent investment mechanism could help lifetime tenants build up a nest egg of their own, while also offering landlords a long-term and stable income.

Greater regulation must also recognise that private rent, while often undesired, does have its advantages. It must seek to create a sector that offers stability to those that crave it, alongside flexibility to those whose circumstances require it. If it can offer choice and support then it will no longer be considered a third-best option.

Creating such a sector is not a simple job, but it may prove a stretch easier than the sister task of building new homes.

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